When the Finch Rises

Rating:
Summary: Destined for greatness
Review: I don't think it will be long before Jack Riggs is a household name. This book is an absolute work of art. Riggs recreates the heart and soul of his young characters like few authors can. You will find yourself loving these characters as if you truly knew them. Your heart breaks with their troubles and cheers for their victories. I was amazed that a book so dark and troubling left me with so much hope. It is destined to be a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Destined for greatness
Review: I don't think it will be long before Jack Riggs is a household name. This book is an absolute work of art. Riggs recreates the heart and soul of his young characters like few authors can. You will find yourself loving these characters as if you truly knew them. Your heart breaks with their troubles and cheers for their victories. I was amazed that a book so dark and troubling left me with so much hope. It is destined to be a classic.

Rating:
Summary: I felt like I was there
Review: I had not read any of Riggs' other writings before reading this novel, and was pleasantly surprised. I haven't spent much time in the rural South, but now I feel like I have. Riggs' use of colorful terminology (Raybert's mother chasing her tail), hilarious images (the boys peeing in the sink so as not to wake Raybert's parents) and heartbreaking stories (Raybert's dad planting a lawn to please his wife, only to have it washed away in a storm), fuse together seamlessly to take the reader into Rigg's world. This was the kind of book that had me thinking at the end: I wish it kept going. While the ending makes it doubtful that we'll see anything more of Palmer, I'm hoping to read more about Raybert. In any case, I hope Riggs gets busy and publishes his second novel.